In today’s Good News, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has partnered with the world-famous Metropolitan Opera to hand out free tickets to city residents who have never had the pleasure of attending. And in Vietnam, an even less conventional celebration of music occurred when Rick Wakeman, formerly of the progressive rock band Yes, performed for an audience of rescued bears.

Anya Jaremko-Greenwold
The Week Digital

Mayo Clinic researchers have found a potential new way of reprogramming immune cells in patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancerous brain tumor. Inhibiting a protein called MALT1 causes immune cells around the tumors to shift from a “state that helps protect the cancer to one that promotes an anti-tumor immune response,” said Mayo Clinic. The team also discovered that combining MALT1 with temozolomide, the chemotherapy medicine most commonly used for glioblastoma, enhances its effectiveness.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a new initiative called “Opera for All.” The city, in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera, will give away 10,000 free opera tickets a month until the end of the 2026-27 season. They will be distributed via lottery to New York City residents who have never purchased Met tickets before. “Every New Yorker should have the opportunity to sit in these seats, hear these voices and experience this stage,” said Mamdani.

Musician Rick Wakeman has performed for some unusual audiences, but none quite like the 150 rescued moon bears he recently played piano for at a sanctuary in Vietnam. The former member of the band Yes played specially composed pieces to raise awareness of moon bears “kept in cruel conditions for the extraction of their bile,” said The Guardian. More than 290 bears have now been rescued in Vietnam, but about 150 remain in captivity.

A group of teen environmentalists in California has set a Guinness World Record for the most racquet-sport balls recycled in a single day. At a community event, the Another Bounce group collected nearly 22,000 balls, mostly for pickleball and tennis, weighing 2,675 pounds. The balls were trucked off to a special recycling facility, where they will be turned into new balls or sustainable materials.

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